Beginning Affiliate Marketing Journey

[ericpmartin]

I started my affiliate marketing documentation journey last week with a YouTube channel. Connecting with a community was actually step three (3).

I have so far watched a lot of YouTube videos of people talking about affiliate marketing and how to get started as a beginner.

What I've discovered is to break this business (dissect) into parts. Step 4 is to decide on the tools that I can get for free so I can collect emails, have a landing page and an autoresponder, and then the audience platform on which I will use to bring that product or service in front of.

Is there anything I may be missing?

 

[Honeybadger]

I started my affiliate marketing documentation journey last week with a YouTube channel. Connecting with a community was actually step three (3).

I have so far watched a lot of YouTube videos of people talking about affiliate marketing and how to get started as a beginner.

What I've discovered is to break this business (dissect) into parts. Step 4 is to decide on the tools that I can get for free so I can collect emails, have a landing page and an autoresponder, and then the audience platform on which I will use to bring that product or service in front of.

Is there anything I may be missing?

The best is be very clear on everything
Make data-driven decisions
Things will go wrong, keep moving forward

 

[ericpmartin]

The best is be very clear on everything
Make data-driven decisions
Things will go wrong, keep moving forward

How can you be clear as a beginner when you "Don't know what you don't know"?

 

[Honeybadger]

How can you be clear as a beginner when you "Don't know what you don't know"?

What is your earning goal and when?
Commit to $xxx on (date)
Also good if you start a journey thread

 

[thelegend]

Well you can use aweber for free until you achieve 500 subscribers .Be sure to create videos that bring value to people amd not short and spamy videos this will not work .If you want to make money forget about money amd focus on delivering value and then money will come

 

[Strickland]

If you want to make money forget about money amd focus on delivering value and then money will come

/\ This /\

There are many different avenues to follow with affiliate marketing, some might be considered slightly easier than others but all have a very steep learning curve.
You will without doubt hear lots of stories where people earn x amount of $ in just a few days, but the real world just isn't like that. Making money and making profit are two different things.
My first piece of advise would be don't underestimate the volume of work needed, it's enormous.
Second, spend 20% of your time researching, 80% doing.

 

[tyoussef]

perfect @ericpmartin.

what are you going to promote ?.

 

[Honeybadger]

2nd affiliate site is so much faster to build out than 1st

 

[ericpmartin]

What is your earning goal and when?
Commit to $xxx on (date)
Also good if you start a journey thread

My goal is to earn $80.00 per day to replace the income from the job I got fired from two weeks ago. I need to put on the date on that. I'm just not sure if in 30 days is realistic (December 1st) as there are just too many factors and known variables.

 

[ericpmartin]

perfect @ericpmartin.

what are you going to promote ?.

I had chosen one product from Clickbank that deals with education. The question that I have is choosing the audience to put that product in front of and how. Of course, there are the other questions that still haven't been answered yet as, "How am I going to collect emails? What landing page am I going to use? If I choose this product, can I create enough content around that product (this has been a big question and hurdle for me which stops me in my tracks every time), and lastly, Am I really passionate about this product to commit time and enegry promoting it just because of its gravity rating."

 

[Honeybadger]

My goal is to earn $80.00 per day to replace the income from the job I got fired from two weeks ago. I need to put on the date on that. I'm just not sure if in 30 days is realistic (December 1st) as there are just too many factors and known variables.

You sound very serious
Plus you have the same reason as me
Lost job, need to pay bills
I posted zero ads in month 1
Just focus on help people & get ranking
Then month 2 posted ads
This month I doubled ad revenue to month 2
Takes a lot of hard work & hours
Also, check how long you wait for payment
It can be long time if money-back guarantee

Online education is a good one
Does your product help people get a job?
I have an idea for that
You can DM me it's just sitting in notes

 

[ericpmartin]

You sound very serious
Plus you have the same reason as me
Lost job, need to pay bills
I posted zero ads in month 1
Just focus on help people & get ranking
Then month 2 posted ads
This month I doubled ad revenue to month 2
Takes a lot of hard work & hours
Also, check how long you wait for payment
It can be long time if money-back guarantee

Online education is a good one
Does your product help people get a job?
I have an idea for that
You can DM me it's just sitting in notes

No, my product doesn't help with jobs. I looked in that category and the gravity rating for all job products were really low.
Yes, I'm very serious because the outcome, if I don't figure this out, is pretty severe (homelessness).
I will possibly take you up on reaching out to you by DM later.

 

[ericpmartin]

Well you can use aweber for free until you achieve 500 subscribers .Be sure to create videos that bring value to people amd not short and spamy videos this will not work .If you want to make money forget about money amd focus on delivering value and then money will come

Unfortunately, the landlord, cellphone company, electric company, gas company and internet provider care about money each and every month.

 

[ericpmartin]

November 1st, 2020

Let's call this Blog Entry - DAY 2

First I like to say how much I'm enjoying this AffiliateFix community. I began reading Macher52's journey because it seemed we were at the same place. Starting with Clickbank as everyone suggests. And today, I am at the same place, rethinking my product.

As I had mentioned, I created a YouTube channel to document my journey as well. I got up this morning with the intention of an idea for my content, "Why starting an affiliate network product is a bad idea".

As some experienced affiliate marketers have suggested, it's better to start with something you are passionate about or know about. The product I had chosen had fit that criterion but I knew nothing about the course. If I choose a course that I haven't taken, how can I build "content" around it? You can't.

I thought of what products I had paid for and am using that are digital and have an affiliate program. I recently paid for a software program for an entire year. I bought it because of its rich features. However, I'm still learning the program.

Choosing this product to market to learn how to market affiliate products will allow me to I can create a lot of content around it.

But now that I have chosen that, I have to put two other pieces to the puzzle together. That is, what and how will I create a landing page to capture "customer emails". Which is a topic I don't hear too many experts mentioning as of yet in my journey.

The Goal for Today November 1st, 2020

1. Research how to build an effective landing page for the product I've chosen to promote.
2. Create the landing page

Any comments or suggestions would be much appreciated by all the experienced affiliate marketers.

 

[Honeybadger]

Videos gives you advantage
Neil Patel makes good videos
Why?

• Regular (every 2-3 days)
  
• Short (5-15 mins max.)
  
• Clear (this is what I will show you)
  
• Useful (this is the benefit for you)
• Actionable (how you make it happen)
• Tidy (simple colours, accessible graphics)

Example -->

Opportunities are out these
Main reason most people fail?
They find a reason to quit
Keep going
You can make it
--> $80/day <--

 

[Graybeard]

Eric is the 'offer' READINGHS at ClickBank? If so --I could add some input.

The past few weeks I have been testing some ad networks with ClickBank --rather discouraged with the results but it very well may be the ads --the traffic source and quality.

You are just testing the market for an offer --look at it that way.

Don't marry the offer and 'go down with the ship'. We, as marketers, have a tendency so sell ourselves --on what we are selling --and ignore the results --blaming ourselves for bad results --when the product (offer) has some real issues.

Be ready to pivot to offer 'B', 'C' even 'D' before you start to see results.
Furthermore;

1. What will be your traffic source?
2. How will you track and sort the traffic?
3. How do you plan to host your landing page?

Is your goal the sales conversions or the emails?
Building an email list is good but mailing it and making money is a whole additional learning curve.

Think some of these things through and understand you have one immediate need: finding some offers that will convert with the traffic you can find <start here

Then scale and set income goals --don't create your own stumbling blocks --most of us will do that ...
Best of Luck

 

[ericpmartin]

@Graybeard, I want to thank you for engaging in my thread. Since I've been on a committed path to understand and dissect the affiliate marketing industry, having online conversations with experienced affiliate marketers I have found has enriched my learning experience, so thank you.

A
Where I am at today, is deciding how I promote the product or service. There are two paths I have found that are out there that one can take.

1. Build your own audience to put a product or service in front of
2. Buy traffic from a source that already has the audience that will complement your product or service.

As far as the topic of an email list. The customer represents a certain amount of value. Look at what companies and advertisers are willing to pay big bucks for, to get in front of the customer with their product or service. As I'm building an online business, isn't it better to collect an email address from a prospect from the start? That asset can be sold, marketed to, or used for some other product or service later. In the physical world, companies are trying to capture customers that walk through their doors with other ways to market to them. For example, text messaging, mailing physical advertisements to their homes, email addresses for other offers.

As far as going down with a product. I feel as a beginner affiliate marketer entering into this space that we are here to first, help the merchant sell more of the products or services the company is offering. There is a story that comes to mind of the famous advertising marketer, Claude Hopkins, and how he brought Pepsident toothpaste to the mainstream market. It's an interesting story.

Finding a product to convert is great but that is going to be a lot of time invested if one goes the route of building an audience. If one goes the paid route, it's just a matter of if there is enough risk capital available for the affiliate marketer to find the winning product or service. I'm not in the latter camp, so finding a product or service that I can build an audience with is crucial and in my opinion, necessary to think through before pulling the trigger on creating a lot of content. Wouldn't you agree?

 

[ericpmartin]

11/01/2020 10:11 a.m. C.S.T.

I just ran into a snag. I didn't even think to read the details about the service I use that I wanted to start building content around. A key piece of the puzzle.

 

[Honeybadger]

Don't marry the offer and 'go down with the ship'. We, as marketers, have a tendency so sell ourselves --on what we are selling --and ignore the results --blaming ourselves for bad results --when the product (offer) has some real issues.

Put yourself in the customers shoes
What do people want right now?
What are people paying for right now?
Use Google Trends to research what is going down
It's not hard to start selling things & pay bills
People are stocking up for winter & Covid
Everyone wants things to do at home
Focus on people at home & products/entertainment
Look in the news, what are the ads today?
What is trending on Amazon today?

Don't let a random marketer sell you on a program nobody is buying
If you need to pay bills start selling today

 

[Honeybadger]

Build a reasonable level of traffic first in your chosen niche content --then look to monetize it ... Then you will have something of value to leverage with. There are no or little pre qualification programs you can use too in the beginning.

Right on
100% what happened to me
First month just building traffic
No ads just content

 

[Graybeard]

Buying traffic is a lot easier than SEO and faster --but there is a major sacrifice --quality.
Were can I buy 1000 of which 300 will have reasonable to good potential ... No ad network need to respond to this unless you are willing to sample test (on your dime -- not mine ).

Regarding your image -- 'qualified is the issue' ?
My standard answer why should I spend MY MONEY working with you? But then I do have money to spend.
If you are starting with little money and want to build a website and establish SEO traffic: Don't worry about INSTANT monetization.

Build a reasonable level of traffic first in your chosen niche content --then look to monetize it ... Then you will have something of value to leverage with. There are no or little pre qualification programs you can use too in the beginning.

 

[Honeybadger]

Are we talking Amazon?

• SEO clicks are hi-quality only if they are true search engine referrals.
• There are tons of scraper bots out there and they will click on your links
  regardless of nofollow
  --did you know that?
  
• Many of these 'hostiles' are hosted on AWS and Google's user cloud
• --so the enemy is within
• --welcome to the innerwebs ...

JavaScript redirect your links --if that is 'allowed' within the Amazon Associates affiliation contract only ... redirection will be to your 'official' link. I use PHP (separate php file) to mask the URL from the webpage ...

But this will only defeat some~ B0ts: Your 'buddy' Google released the selenium code (Chrome Headless) and many B0ts are this variety.

• Sorry to pivot off topic here

I'm lost, what happened?
What does scraping mean?
What bot is clicking my Amazon links?